- Signs of the Times Archive for Fri, 23 Nov 2007 -



Sections on today's Signs Page:

SOTT Focus

No new articles.


Best of the Web
Zionism Must Be Dissolved for Peace

Khalid Amayreh
Desert Peace Blog
2007-11-22 22:46:00

©Ben Heine


Zionism, we are told, is about "building a national homeland for the Jews." However, for millions of its victims, Zionism is about the extirpation, expulsion and dispersion of the bulk of the Palestinian people from their ancestral homeland to the four corners of the world by way of organised terror and violence.

When the notoriously insidious system of institutionalised repression failed to make significant numbers of Palestinians emigrate, Israel resorted to brazen physical harm in the form of terrorising and killing the Palestinians at the slightest "provocation", very much like Hitler's forces did throughout Nazi-occupied Europe more than sixty years ago. Needless to say, Israeli "pacification" raids and incursions would leave many children and women killed, homes destroyed, farms pulverized, furniture vandalized and roads and infrastructures thoroughly bulldozed.

Israel claims it doesn't kill Palestinian children and civilian deliberately. This is a cardinal lie. Mistakes happen once, twice, ten times. But when the killing of civilians happens nearly on a daily basis, it means it is policy. In the final analysis, killing knowingly is killing deliberately.

Comment on this SOTT Focus


U.S. News
Why We Shouldn't Celebrate Thanksgiving

Robert Jensen
AlterNet
2007-11-22 22:34:00

After years of being constantly annoyed and often angry about the historical denial built into Thanksgiving Day, I published an essay in November 2005 suggesting we replace the feasting with fasting and create a National Day of Atonement to acknowledge the genocide of indigenous people that is central to the creation of the United States.

©n/a


Comment on this SOTT Focus

What is Happening to the NY Times? Not One Single Word About McClellan's Bush Bombshell


The Ostroy Report
2007-11-22 18:29:00

Former White House Press Secretary Scott McLellan caused quite a ruckus Tuesday with the startling (but certainly not surprising) revelation that his former bosses instructed him to outright lie to the American public over the Valerie Plame CIA leak case.

Comment on this SOTT Focus


UK & Euro-Asian News
Three Russian generals fired, says report


Agence France-Presse
2007-11-23 00:08:00

MOSCOW - Three Russian generals have been fired in what Russian media speculated Friday was part of President Vladimir Putin's spat of displeasure at the defense ministry's inefficiency.

General Anatoly Grebenyuk, chief of the ministry's housing and settling service; General Vladislav Polonsky, chief of the automobile, tank and armored vehicle service; and the head of the ministry's medical department General Igor Bykov were relieved of their duties on Thursday, Interfax news agency reported.

Comment on this SOTT Focus

Russian opposition election candidate shot

Conor Sweeney
Reuters
2007-11-21 21:40:00

An opposition politician running in Russian parliamentary elections was shot and seriously wounded on Wednesday as he entered his house in the southern Russian region of Dagestan, Russian media reported.

Farid Babayev, who will lead the regional list for the liberal anti-Kremlin Yabloko party was in a serious condition in hospital, RIA Novosti news agency reported after an unidentified gunman fired on him in the regional capital Makhachkala.

Comment on this SOTT Focus

The French revolution over Israeli literature

Daniel Ben Simon
w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m
2007-11-22 18:49:00

PARIS - The French-Jewish novelist Marek Halter sat this week in a posh restaurant on Avenue Montaigne, in the heart of the Parisian high-fashion district, and found it hard to cap his enthusiasm. "You wouldn't believe how books about Jews and Israel are in demand among French publishing houses," he declared, in a voice that drew the attention of other diners. At the next table, Johnny Hallyday, perhaps the most popular singer in France, was following Halter's pronouncements with intense interest.

Comment on this SOTT Focus


Around the World
Venezuela frustrated by end to Colombia hostage mediation


Agence France-Presse
2007-11-22 23:49:00

CARACAS - President Hugo Chavez Thursday called on Colombia's rebel chief Manuel Marulanda to provide proof that his hostages are alive, despite Bogota's decision to end Chavez's role in mediating the release of the captives.

"Since the process is under way and some things cannot be stopped ... I hope the FARC will send me the proof that they are alive," he said in a speech, referring to an earlier demand he made to Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) chief Manuel Marulanda.

Comment on this SOTT Focus

Former Pakistan PM Sharif returning from exile-aide


Reuters
2007-11-22 23:33:00

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will meet Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah on Friday and will return to Pakistan from exile within a few days, his party chairman told Reuters.

©REUTERS/Adrees Latif
Supporters of the Sindh National Party demand an end to emergency rule and press freedom while marching in Karachi November 22, 2007.


Comment on this SOTT Focus


Big Brother

No new articles.


Axis of Evil

No new articles.


Middle East Madness
36 killed as Qaeda fighters attack Iraqi villages


Agence France-Presse
2007-11-23 00:20:00

BAGHDAD - At least 36 people were killed in fierce gun battles as suspected Al-Qaeda fighters, some dressed as Iraqi soldiers, attacked three villages on Thursday, officials said.

A ferocious firefight erupted early morning when gunmen in army uniforms launched an attack on Howr Rajab, a Sunni village south of Baghdad, killing three soldiers and wounding three, a security official said.



Comment: The key word is suspected Al-Qaeda fighters. And the ones who are suspecting this to be the case is the US military, the same organisation that created the myth of Al-qaeda in the first place.



Comment on this SOTT Focus

Saudi women activists furious at gang-rape ruling


Agence France-Presse
2007-11-23 00:11:00

DUBAI - A recent Saudi court ruling sentencing a woman to six months in jail and 200 lashes despite being gang-raped highlights the injustice faced by women in the ultra-conservative kingdom, women rights activists said.

"Sure, there is injustice against women in courts. It is a bitter situation that Saudi women have to endure," Saudi activist Wajiha al-Hweider said on Thursday, after the court ruling received widespread publicity.


Comment on this SOTT Focus

One Million Dead in Iraq: Our Own Holocaust Denial

Mark Weisbrot
Information Clearing House
2007-11-22 22:04:00

Institutionally unwilling to consider America's responsibility for the bloodbath, the traditional media have refused to acknowledge the massive number of Iraqis killed since the invasion.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad's flirtation with those who deny the reality of the Nazi genocide has rightly been met with disgust. But another holocaust denial is taking place with little notice: the holocaust in Iraq. The average American believes that 10,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the US invasion in March 2003. The most commonly cited figure in the media is 70,000. But the actual number of people who have been killed is most likely more than one million.

Comment on this SOTT Focus


The Loan Gunmen
World credit crunch could bite harder, warn experts

Sam Fleming
Daily Mail
2007-11-22 22:33:00

©n/a
'Progress has come to a halt,' says a pessimistic Alan Greenspan


A trio of the world's leading financial and economic analysts yesterday sounded a grim warning about the effects of the global "credit crunch".

Band of England deputy governor Sir John Gieve, former U.S. Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development all said that financial markets are deteriorating as the lending squeeze continues to bite.

Comment on this SOTT Focus


The Living Planet
Earthquake hits near Aceh, no reports of damage


Reuters
2007-11-22 23:54:00

©REUTERS/Graphics
A map shows the location of an earthquake of magnitude 6.0 which struck off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island, near Aceh, the country's meteorological agency said on Friday morning.


An earthquake of magnitude 6.0 struck off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island, near Aceh, the country's meteorological agency said on Friday, but officials said there was no damage to nearby energy facilities and a tsunami warning was not issued.

Comment on this SOTT Focus


Health & Wellness
Additives 'a risk to children's health'


Daily Mail
2007-11-22 22:21:00

©n/a
Additives harm the 'psychological health' of children (Posed by model)


Parents have been warned to remove food additives linked to hyperactive behaviour from children's diets by the EU's leading expert on the issue. Dr John Larsen, who heads the European Food Safety Authority's panel on additives, said the measure would be "prudent" to protect youngsters' health.

Comment on this SOTT Focus


Science & Technology

No new articles.


Our Haunted Planet

No new articles.


Don't Panic! Lighten Up!
Student dress as clowns to mock CIA recruiters and protest against torture tactics

Evan Wagstaff
Daily Nexus
2007-11-15 17:45:00



CIA recruitment on UC campuses have always been a controversial topic. But Thursday UCSB students sent in the clowns to "rescue" a protester who was being "waterboarded".

To add insult to injury the clowns then followed the CIA recruiter out of the building and chased him to his car before he sped out of town.

[laist.com]




Comment on this SOTT Focus



Remember, we need your help to collect information on what is going on in your part of the world!
Send your article suggestions to: sott(at)signs-of-the-times.org

Click here to return to the Signs of the Times Archive

Click here for today's Signs Page